Everything you need to know about Call of Cthulhu for Xbox One and PC

The Cthulhu Mythos, originally thought up by writer H.P. Lovecraft in the 1920s, has become an enduring catalog of all things horrifying and unsettling. While the original stories were fairly short and written as pulp fiction, the legend of Cthulhu — and the other Elder Gods — has endured.

In this new game, you play as private investigator Edward Pierce who has traveled to Darkwater Island to investigate the death of an entire family. Once he arrives, things begin to take a sinister turn as he discovers that Cthulhu is awakening.

What is Call of Cthulhu's release date?

For the time being, we don't have a solid release date. We just got our second trailer from E3, and the game is slated to be released later in 2017. Unfortunately, there's no way to tell when in 2017 that will be or if it will end up being pushed to 2018. However, Call of Cthulhu will be released for Xbox One, PC and PlayStation 4 (PS4).

What is the story of Call of Cthulhu?

You play as Edward Pierce, an investigator sent to figure out how an entire family wound up dead on Darkwater Island, a horror survival setting that takes its cues from investigative storytelling. We don't have exact details yet on everything the story will entail, but the trailers have definitely given us some solid clues.

What we do know is this: Edward is specifically investigating the death of an acclaimed artist and her family on this island. Darkwater Island is fairly remote, but it's located somewhere near Boston, Mass. The time period of the game hasn't been unveiled, but it definitely looks like we'll be going a bit back in time.

A cult of some kind is involved, and they are also in the process of readying things for the arrival of Cthulhu, an Elder God that is currently very asleep. If he wakes, though, things are going to go very badly very quickly. You'll have to solve the mystery and stop those preparations if you want to keep Cthulhu sleeping, and the world.

What kind of Gameplay will Call of Cthulhu have?

Call of Cthulhu is going to take advantage of a semi-open world, in which you need to survive the horrors all around you. You'll be looking at gameplay that has you taking advantage of both investigative skills, and stealth in order to make it out alive. Additionally, this is made to be a horror game so expect some jump scares and psychological warfare to come up on you at any time.

The developer, Cyanide, has announced it's going to run on the Unreal 4 engine, which means it should be fluid and gorgeous to look at.

Is Call of Cthulhu based on the original story by H.P. Lovecraft?

Not exactly. The inspiration for Call of Cthulhu on console comes more from the tabletop roleplaying game of the same name that was released in 1981. Considering the original story is nearly a century old at this point, it gave the developers a bit more to bite into.

Cyanide definitely did its due diligence here though. Several of the writers for the video game had previously worked on the tabletop version, which means they have a thorough grasp of the Cthulhu mythos. For tabletop gamers who have since migrated to console or PC, this is great news.

Questions?

There is still bound to be plenty more news coming about Call of Cthulhu before it hits the shelves. Do you know something we missed? Are you excited to play? Let us know in the comments.